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Oregon Live Interview

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Rebecca Romijn is one busy person. While she's still working on filming the first season of TNT's "The Librarians" in Portland, Romijn also made a brief appearance here at the Beverly Hilton Hotel for the Television Critics Association 2014 Summer Press Tour last week, to promote another show, the GSN channel's "Skin Wars."

For someone juggling two shows, Romijn looked calm, cool and collected. During a lunch session devoted to GSN shows -- including "Skin Wars," a body-painting competition show which Romijn hosts -- Romijn circulated among tables of journalists, chatting and answering questions.

She shared her perspective about body-painting -- Romijn's an expert, having been painted blue for her role as Mystique in the early "X-Men" movies. As you might expect, Romijn discovered blue paint in unexpected places -- behind the ears, for example -- while working on the "X-Men" movies.

I asked her about "The Librarians," which has been filming its first season on location in the Portland area and in soundstages in Clackamas County since spring. The show is produced by Dean Devlin's Electric Entertainment, the company that produced and filmed the TNT series "Leverage" in Portland.

"The Librarians" is a spinoff of the three "Librarian" TNT TV-movies, which starred Noah Wyle ("Falling Skies") as Flynn Carsen, a librarian who turns adventurer when he discovers the library where he works is actually an ancient repository of historical and magical artifacts.

Wyle returns to his role in "The Librarians," and the cast also includes Christian Kane, who co-starred in "Leverage" (Kane played tough guy Eliot Spencer.)

In "The Librarians," Romijn plays Eve Baird, a counter-terrorism agent charged with protecting Carsen and his team, who work to protect the secrets and objects of the library.

"There's a lot of running around," Romijn said, adding that her and Wyle's characters butt heads -- at least initially.

Romijn said she's been impressed by how Portland-area locations double for sites all over the world, as he team travels the globe for their adventures. "Slovakia, London, New York, Paris, Boston," Romijn said, reciting some of the locales Portland poses as in "The Librarians."

"I've fallen in love with Portland," Romijn said. "I'm from Berkeley, and so the whole 'Keep Portland Weird' thing" felt familiar, since, as she put it, she grew up in "Berserkley."

Production of the 10 episodes of "The Librarians" has brought together many of the same people who worked on "Leverage," which TNT canceled in late 2012.